A new study claims to have found a new pathway of a specific steroid that the brain uses to control blood pressure.
Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and the Ottawa Heart Institute say that the findings may lead to better treatments for hypertension and heart failure.
"This research gives us an entirely new way of understanding how the brain and the cardiovascular system work together," co-principal author John Hamlyn, a professor of physiology at the UM SOM, said in a press release.
For the study, the researchers studied the animal model of hyper-tension. The researchers found an association between brain and rising blood pressure, which is a steroid known as ouavabain.
This is the first such study to identify the pathway that the brain uses to regulate the diameter of the arteries via ouabain in the bloodstream and causes an increase in contractile proteins in the arteries.
According to the researchers, the newly identified pathway works along with the nervous system pathway to control the function of arteries and thereby contributes to high blood pressure. The team explained that the medications that block ouabain's effects might improve the lives of people with hyper-tension and heart failure.
"Now that we understand the role of ouabain, we can begin working on how to modify this new pathway to help people with cardiovascular problems," said co-researcher Mordecai Blaustein, a professor of physiology and medicine at the University of Maryland' School of Medicine.
The study was published in the journal PLOS One.
